Art on the Inside

Each winter members of the Prison Creative Arts Project travel to about 30 prisons around Michigan to gather work for the Annual Exhibition of Art by

Michigan Prisoners — a show in the Duderstadt Center filled floor-to-ceiling with several hundred paintings and drawings.  I've always been fascinated to hear my friend Janie Paul, the show's senior curator, describe the extraordinary but brief conversations between curator and artist. In 2010, I followed Janie and other show organizers to hear from the the artists about what it means to create art inside prison and imagine their work as part of the Exhibition.